Chapter 371: Chapter 361: So Audacious

As for the corpses left behind, they just lay there, abandoned—chewed on by the occasional passing Red-eyed Meat Dragon, but otherwise untouched.

Tang Mo’s idea was to put this "waste" to use.

Rather than letting those poor souls rot away, why not let them contribute one last meaningful thing?

The leftover flesh could still be scraped off the bones. Wouldn’t it be great to use it as a filling inside the doughy paste?

’Oh wait, no. What’s not to like?’

After all, meat was far more effective against the Red-eyed Meat Dragons than the paste. A small piece of flesh could quiet one for at least ten minutes. If she wrapped it in the paste, she was certain the Red-eyed Meat Dragons would love it.

"Isn’t this a little too cruel...?"

Zhao Tian may have been the eldest brother, but he was also the most soft-hearted. He knew this was the right thing to do, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was wrong.

"Brother, think about the people in our group—the children, the seventy-year-old elders. The dead are dead. They feel no pain, no anything. But the living... we have to keep living."

Zhao Huan was the picture of clear-headed pragmatism. The moment Tang Mo suggested the idea, he recognized its feasibility and was ready to put it into action.

Nothing was more important than keeping the living alive.

Hearing his brother’s words, Zhao Tian’s unease began to fade. ’He’s right. What can a corpse feel? The people in our group are alive.’

The night was pitch-black, making it difficult to see. Evading the Red-eyed Meat Dragons and hauling back the flesh-covered corpses from the roadside would be no easy feat.

But it had to be done, no matter how difficult. Having made their decision, the three of them slipped into the darkness.

Even though they’d agreed everyone was responsible for their own safety, Zhao Huan still slipped a few pellets into Tang Mo’s pocket. At a critical moment, they could be life-saving.

’He’s all bark and no bite,’ Tang Mo thought, finding it a little amusing as she felt the pellets in her pocket.

The darkness was no issue for Tang Mo, and the Red-eyed Meat Dragons were even less of a concern.

The corpses by the road, however... that was another matter.

These weren’t ordinary corpses, after all. They were half-eaten, mangled masses of flesh and blood that had been lying by the road for an unknown number of days.

None of the bodies were intact. They reeked of decay, with maggots squirming in the torn wounds and swarms of flies and insects buzzing around them.

But it had to be done, so she steeled herself. Tang Mo found a plastic bag to wrap around her hands as a makeshift glove, then grabbed a corpse by the feet and began dragging it back to their base as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Whenever she encountered a Red-eyed Meat Dragon, she simply used her spiritual power to control it and make it go away.

In fact, if the Zhao brothers weren’t around, Tang Mo would have simply used her spiritual power to make a few Meat Dragons haul the corpses for her.

But that would be far too shocking for anyone to witness. She wanted to stay with the group a while longer, so it was best to keep a low profile.

Tang Mo moved with incredible speed, grabbing the corpse’s feet and practically sprinting. She didn’t want to be touching it for a second longer than she had to. The sooner she got it there, the sooner this would be over.

One by one, the corpses were dragged to the first floor of the main hall and piled up. Realizing the workload was too large to finish in one night, Tang Mo decided to stop.

She and Zhao Huan had agreed: each of them would take five bait pellets, and they would regroup once they had used them all up.

Tang Mo didn’t have to wait long. Soon, both Zhao Huan and Zhao Tian were back.

However, it was clear from their expressions that things hadn’t gone well. Zhao Huan was dragging a single corpse, but there was barely any meat left on it.

Zhao Tian had returned empty-handed, his face a mask of frustration.

This was much harder than they had imagined. It seemed the plan was a failure.

But after the two dejected men came inside and locked the door, they were stunned to see the hall piled high with corpses.

’Did that young woman get all of these? Impossible!’

Transporting the bodies sounded simple, but it was incredibly difficult in practice.

Dragging a corpse while simultaneously avoiding the Red-eyed Mutant Beasts was a nearly impossible task.

It was one thing to evade them on your own, but while dragging dead weight? You couldn’t run, you couldn’t hide properly, and you’d burn through your supply of pellets in no time.

The task was so difficult that neither of them had expected the young woman to succeed. Zhao Huan had already resigned himself to the single corpse he’d brought back being their only prize.

"You brought all these back?"

"Ah, I guess I’m just faster... and more agile..."

Seeing their stunned expressions, Tang Mo actually felt a little embarrassed. ’Did I bring back too many?’

’Damn, if I’d known, I would’ve just brought back a few to show I’d made an effort. I overdid it!’

Despite their surprise, they were thrilled to see such a haul.

Now that they had the materials, the rest was simple: processing.

Zhao Huan told Zhao Yu to guard the second floor and not let anyone downstairs. Then, the rest of them started a fire.

Tang Mo couldn’t take any part in this step. It may have been her idea, but she wanted nothing to do with the process itself.

Of course, Zhao Huan and the others understood her squeamishness—she was a young woman, after all. Besides, she had procured all the materials; what more could they possibly ask of her?

Naturally, the task fell to Zhao Huan and Zhao Tian.

They were used to making the bait, and they worked with practiced ease. Soon, they had thrown all of their existing food and the original pellets into a pot to melt down.

This time, they added more water to make a thinner paste, then mixed in wall ash and some kind of coagulant to increase the volume.

Next, they cut the meat into small chunks and coated each piece in the cooled paste.

And just like that, a brand-new, oversized pellet was complete.

A large, meat-filled pellet like this used only a small amount of paste, yet its effectiveness was several times that of the original.

Zhao Huan estimated that one of these pellets could keep a Red-eyed Mutant Beast docile for at least twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes. That was enough time for their entire group to pass through. If they were quick, they might even have time to scavenge for some food.

Zhao Huan and Zhao Tian worked through the night without sleep. They were exhausted, but their excitement was so great they couldn’t feel their fatigue.

So much bait—it was an incredible fortune!

Watching the oversized pellets being made one by one and laid out in dense rows across the floor, the two brothers felt a joy that went beyond mere happiness. It was the kind of euphoria they used to imagine came from winning the lottery.

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